Empowering Hill Women through Promotion of AIPAN Designs’ Based Textile Articles

Uttarakhand is known for its natural scenic beauty rendered by Himalayas, Tarai and Bhabar region and it has attracted everyone from all over the world. Aipan is a folk art of Kumaun region of Uttarakhand which is related to Hindu myths and rituals drawn on the floor. In the present study, Aipan designs were incorporated into borders woven through extra weft figuring technique using woollen yarn. These were then applied on products namely, lady’s shirt, waist coat for male, waist coat for female, cap and stole. These finished articles were assessed by the two groups of respondents comprising of 30 Kumauni women and 30 females from of the College of Home Science on the parameters namely, workmanship of woven border, suitability of the border colour combination to that of fabric colour of the article, suitability of the border to the articles, placement of border on article, neat finishing of the article with applied border, overall appearance of the article. The waist coat for males and females finished with the borders, were widely accepted by the two groups of respondents and most of the respondents were satisfied with cost of articles. Thus, woven borders can be used effectively for the product diversification and could be promoted as means for conservation of Aipan craft in form of textile items.